Policies & Procedures
Sociology Department Policies & Procedures
Here you’ll find information about Sociology policies and procedures
on the following topics and issues:
If you have additional questions about Sociology Department policies and procedures,
please call 734-647-6895 or email Diana Paterno at dpaterno@umich.edu.
Overrides
Students should register for courses as early as possible since classes fill
quickly. If a class is full, the procedure is as follows:
- Add yourself to the electronic waitlist for the course.
- Go to the first class meeting and ask the instructor for permission to enroll in the course.
- If permission is granted, the faculty member or GSI will send an email stating this to the department's student services staff members.
- You will receive an email when the electronic override has been processed.
- Go to Wolverine Access and add the course. You MUST add the course in order to be registered for it.
- If you are on the waitlist, you must first drop yourself from the waitlist before the system will allow you to successfully enroll in the course.
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Petitioning the Sociology Department:
Transfer Credit, Study Abroad and Other Matters
A petition is a formal request. As an undergraduate sociology concentrator, you may have a couple of different reasons to formally request that the Department of Sociology make a modification to the concentration requirements in your case. For example, you may have taken a course in another LSA department that had a significant sociological component (i.e. at least half of the readings were sociological in content) and you'd like Sociology to consider that course a fulfillment of part of your concentration electives. You also might petition Sociology if you completed coursework at another institution in the US or abroad and you'd like it to be counted toward your concentration.
GENERAL PROCEDURE:
Complete the petition
form (pdf)and with it submit copies (not originals, as this paperwork will not be returned to you) of any supporting documents, such as course descriptions and syllabi. Return all materials to Elise Frankish in Room 3109 LSA. Your petition will be reviewed, and once a decision is made you will be contacted via email. Courses must be approved before studying at another institution, or taking a course in another department within LSA, if you would like to receive credit toward your Sociology concentration. Petition requests may take a few weeks to be addressed, so please apply early.
SPECIAL PROCEDURES FOR TRANSFER CREDIT AND STUDY ABROAD:
Approval by the University: For a course to be considered as transferable into the Sociology concentration, it must first be evaluated by the UM Credit Evaluation Office. The credit evaluators review the materials for the course(s) in question, and decide how/if the course(s) will transfer into the University. You may refer to the LSA Out-Of-Residence Course Curriculum Guide for information specific to a course at a particular institution or college (if it has been previously evaluated). Once the credit has been approved by the UM Credit Evaluation Office, then you can bring your request to the Sociology Department to be evaluated. Visit http://www.admissions.umich.edu/oor/ for more information about transfer credit.
Approval by the Department: Courses that have been transferred in as general sociology credit at the 200-level or above by the Credit Evaluation Office may be used as elective credit toward the concentration. You may also petition to have these general Sociology credits approved to be counted towards a sub-concentration.
SOME CAUTIONARY NOTES REGARDING TRANSFER CREDIT:
- The College of LSA has specific rules about the number of credit
hours that may be transferred toward the degree. Please see the
College of LSA Bulletin for details.
- All approvals are tentative until the courses have been completed; neither
the University nor the Department can grant credit until the program or University
from which you wish to transfer credit has issued a transcript.
If you are planning on studying abroad, you may want to visit the Office
of International Programs, 1712 Chemistry Building, 930 North University; 734-764-4311; http://www.lsa.umich.edu/oip.
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Grade Grievance Procedure
PREAMBLE:
The department believes that the instructor of a course is in the best position
to determine the quality of a student’s work. The Department of Sociology
also has confidence in the qualifications and good judgment of its faculty.
Nevertheless, there are instances when a student feels that his or her academic
performance has been unfairly or improperly graded. Typical complaints include
prejudice, capricious changes in course requirements, and appraisals clouded
by bias. When such charges arise, discussion and arbitration often can help
ascertain if there is a wrong, which should be righted. However, it is ultimately
only the course instructor who can determine the substantive value of a student’s
performance in that course, and only the instructor can change the grade, except
when a faculty member has left the institution. In that event, the undergraduate
director will resolve the problem with the student.
To successfully appeal a grade, the student must make the case that the grade
received was unjust, and substantially different from the grade that was justified.
The difference between an A- and a B+ is not, for example, a substantial difference.
Dissatisfaction with a grade alone is not sufficient for an appeal nor, except
in extraordinary circumstances, will appeals be heard where a student has not
attended regularly or turned in all required work.
Grade appeal procedures are available only for review of alleged capricious
grading, and not for review of the judgment of an instructor in assessing the
quality of a student’s work. Capricious grading, as that term is used
herein, constitutes any of the following: (1) the assignment of a grade to a
particular student on some basis other than course performance; (2) the assignment
of a grade to a particular student by resort to more exacting or demanding standards
than were applied to other students in that course; or (3) the assignment of
a grade by a substantial departure from the instructor’s previously announced
standards. Changes in course or examination requirements that apply equally
to all students shall not ordinarily be grounds for an individual student’s
grievance.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE:
1. A student who feels that he or she has been unfairly graded should first
consult with the instructor of the course, within three weeks of notice of the
grade, in an effort to resolve the disagreement. If the grade was given by a
GSI and a conference with the GSI does not resolve the matter, the student should
also meet with the faculty instructor or supervisor in the course.
2. If the student is not satisfied by the explanation(s) offered by the instructor
of the course, the student should submit to the undergraduate director a written
appeal, citing the factors that bear explicitly upon the specific grievance.
He or she should also submit all papers and examinations written for the course
to which he or she has access. These materials and the appeal should be submitted
no later than five weeks after the student has been notified of the grade. Exceptions
to this rule will be allowed only in extreme circumstances. An example of acceptable
exception is when a student attempts to consult with the instructor within three
weeks of notice of the grade, and through no fault of the student, the consultation
does not take place. The undergraduate director shall review the complaint and
may attempt to mediate the complaint or ask the department chair to mediate
the complaint, if this seems reasonable. If the complaint appears to have a
substantial basis and is grievable under these rules and if mediation seems
unlikely to help or proves fruitless, the undergraduate director shall advise
the chair of his/her findings and recommend the appointment of a hearing panel,
providing the chair with the names of two undergraduate students who might sit
on the panel. Included with the recommendation shall be all the written materials
the student has provided.
3. Upon receipt of these materials, the chair of the department will appoint
an ad hoc committee to review the appeal and will name its chair. This committee
will consist of the faculty member named as the chair, two additional faculty
members, at least one of whom shall be an undergraduate advisor, and two students
chosen from the suitable peer group (concentrators) by the undergraduate director.
4. The chair of the department will ask the instructor involved to respond
to the appeal in writing no later than three weeks after the filing of the appeal
with the chair. This response, together with the appeal and all relevant materials,
will be put into the hands of the committee.
5. The committee will meet within two weeks after receiving all the aforementioned
materials. Both the student and the instructor will be informed of the time
and place of the meeting and will be allowed to make an oral presentation to
the committee in each other’s presence.
6. If after due deliberation, a majority of the committee vote in favor of
a grade change, the committee will inform the instructor and the student of
this opinion and suggest that the grade be changed. If there is no majority
in favor of changing the grade, the appeal procedure will terminate at this
point and the student and instructor shall be informed of the outcome.
7. If the instructor involved is asked by the committee to change the grade
and refuses to do so, the grade will stand. However, in this case, the chair
of the department or a representative will place a letter recording the decision
of the grievance committee and the refusal of the faculty member to change the
grade in the student’s permanent academic record, unless the student requests
this not be done. At the request of the student, the chair, with the advice
of the Executive Committee, may give alternative relief, such as permitting the
student to retroactively drop the course, to the extent such relief is available.
The LSA Academic Standards Board handles the late drop petitioning process.
8. If the department declines to appoint a hearing committee, or if a hearing
committee’s decision goes against the student, any further appeal the
student may wish to make should be directed to the department Executive Committee.
If there has been a hearing, any review by the Executive Committee will be limited
to deciding whether the student received a fair hearing -- the Executive Committee
will not hear a grievance de novo.
Once appeals under the department’s guidelines have been exhausted,
there is no further appeal within the College or University. Questions about
LSA policy or about specific cases should be directed to the student services
staff, who will contact the LSA Assistant Dean for Student Academic Affairs.
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Plagiarism
Policy
Plagiarism in sociology courses will be appropriately sanctioned and reported
in accordance with the policies of the College of LSA. It is the responsibility
of every student to know what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. If
you have any questions or seek clarification, please contact your instructor,
the department, or the Web sites listed below.
PLAGIARISM OCCURS WHEN:
1. You quote directly from another author's work without putting that material
in quotation marks and properly citing the material.
2. You paraphrase another author's work without proper citation (even if it
is not quoted directly!). You cannot include an author's ideas without referencing
where those ideas came from. You cannot cite some but not all of the material
that you use from an author. It must all be attributed to its source.
3. You represent as your own any written work that is taken from another source:
the Web, other students, etc.
IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
1. When conducting research through the Internet, you must cite any material
you take from the Web. All of the same rules noted above in reference to "traditional"
academic sources also apply to Internet material.
2. If in doubt about whether or not you should cite some material, then you
should! Always err on the side of citing too much, rather than too little.
OTHER RESOURCES ON PLAGIARISM:
Student Academic Affairs in LSA
The UM Libraries on plagiarism
Indiana University's interactive Web site on plagiarism
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